Harrogate Railway triumph on penalties after being pegged back late on in FA Vase tie
Harrogate Railway needed a penalty shoot-out to get the better of Whitley Bay in Saturday’s FA Vase showdown.
The Starbeck outfit appeared to be in full control of their second qualifying round clash having scored twice in the first half and managed to hold on to that advantage until the 90th minute.
But their visitors struck twice in stoppage-time to level matters before the Rail eventually got the job done, triumphing 4-3 on spot-kicks.
The hosts broke the deadlock on 13 minutes when Harry Lynn and Desmond Okoro combined to send Sam Clothier in on goal and he netted with a first-time finish.
Clothier then doubled Railway’s lead just before the interval, smashing the ball in off a post after Harris Eggleston’s initial effort had been parried into his path.
Eliel Maville-Anku came close to wrapping things up late on, however he shot narrowly wide of the mark and Joshua Stewart and Kevin Larmouth notched at the death to make it 2-2 in dramatic fashion.
The home players would however hold their nerve when it came to the shoot-out, with goalkeeper Bill Hick saving one Whitley Bay spot-kick on his way to bagging the man of the match award.
"It was nice to get the win on penalties in the end,” Railway’s number one said.
"It was annoying because we should have won in 90 minutes and kept a clean-sheet.
"I thought that we had killed the game off, but we’ll take a win any day.”